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Monday, 30 April 2012

Glenallachie Distillery, near Aberlour

If you continue up the Burn of Aberlour about a mile from
Aberlour Distilleryyou
arrive at the small hamlet of Cottartown and beyond it the Daugh of Ruthrie
rising south towards Ben Rinnes. Glenallachie
Distillery sits at the bottom of a narrow valley between the two, one of around
10-12 new distilleries that were built across Scotland in the 1960s to meet rising demand and to make best use of modern techniques, design and equipment.

Glenallachie Distillery

Glenallachie opened in 1967 and it is now one of Chivas
Brothers workhorse distilleries producing mostly for blends.It is not open to the public and there are
no unnecessary pretentions to history displayed here, the buildings bright but
functional.Large bonded warehouses
stretch away to the west of the distillery, hidden in a tree lined valley that
is surrounded by fields of grain.There
are 14 warehouses in total, 12 racked and 2 palletised.

The distillery was founded by Scottish & Newcastle
Breweries subsidiary Mackinlay, McPherson & Co, who already owned Jura distillery, and they ran it until they were sold to Invergordon Distillers in
1985.Whereas Jura continued to operate
throughout the following years, Glenallachie was closed in 1987 for two years until
it was sold to Pernod Ricard subsidiary Campbell Distillers, already the owners
of Aberlour Distillery just down the road.They increased the number of stills from 2 to 4 and restarted production
in 1989, the distillery being branded as the Home of Clan Campbell whisky.

The Home of Clan Campbell whisky

Glenallachie’s location takes advantage of the pure spring
water that rises on Ben Rinnes, the Henheads and Blackstank burns being their
sources, both rising far up on the northeast face of the mountain before
they flow into the Burn of Aberlour.The malt is unpeated and most production is matured in bourbon casks with some
Oloroso butts also filled.

Internally the distillery has a stainless steel semi-lauter
tun, 6 washbacks that are stainless steel lined colclad and the two pairs of
stills.Unusually (uniquely?) the condensers are
placed horizontally rather than the normal vertical alignment.They have capacity to produce 3m litres p.a.
which places it mid-table by volume in Scotland.

A 16yo CS release by Chivas Brothers in 2005 was the first
official bottling released recently and an 18yo from 2008 is also currently
available from them, both produced from spirit distilled in that first year of
reopening and matured exclusively in first-fill Oloroso butts.A 12yo was previously available in the 1980s
and there are very occasional independent releases.

Background

Starting in the summer of 1885, Alfred Barnard was commissioned by the London wine and spirit journal Harper’s Weekly Gazette to visit every whisky distillery in Great Britain. His historic journey was published in a book in 1887.

This blog records my own journey in Barnard's footsteps as I retrace his entire journey round Scotland, visiting the same locations that he did as well as every current distillery.